A photo from open sources
No one knows which genes make people smart. However this, apparently, it is quite possible to find out – it is believed that 50-80 percent factors that determine the level of IQ are transmitted by inheritance.
And BGI from Shenzhen is busy researching just that. a question. Her cognitive genomics division maps genes mathematical geniuses. Then scientists plan to compare them with samples obtained in the general population and isolate those genes that make people smarter.
In theory, this can be used to predict intelligence. human embryos. And although the division of cognitive genomics BGI does not conduct research on human embryos or in vitro fertilization – other business units they do it. And if studies of intelligence genes bear fruit, this will allow – again, in theory – parents to choose the smartest an embryo that will have the right to be born.
Most children are within 13 IQ of the average arithmetic scores of their parents. However two or three of every hundred are significantly smarter than this level. Creature a whole set of embryos increases the likelihood of a combination appearing, which will give birth to a super-smart child.
This causes a moral protest among many Western scholars. “Many people consider this a controversial issue, especially in the West. IN China is not, “says the head of the cognitive genomics division BGI Boven Zhao.
Despite a certain moral inconsistency of such technology, other countries also do similar research. For example, a private laboratory in New Jersey, USA, allows couples screen embryos for genetic diseases before fertilization. The same thing can happen with the exception of brain dysfunctions.
But saving a child from illness is not the same as choose Einstein from a test tube to save on board fees university education. These ethical objections to eugenics are likely to force many governments prohibit embryonic selection procedures.
“There will certainly be countries that claim to be part of their national health programs, and what everyone does, ” says BGI Lab Member Steven Nsu. “And at some point this the movement will become unstoppable as countries initially those who put him outside the law will be forced to come to terms with him. how can they not do this? ”
